Republican Presidential Primary front-runner and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich shared his thoughts on Jewish issues and matters relating to Israel in an exclusive interview with The Jewish Channel, America’s Jewish cable station.

Gingrich told The Jewish Channel’s Steven I. Weiss that Palestinians are not a genuine nation, that he identifies closely with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he has “a bias in favor of clemency” for jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

“I think we have had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs,” Gingrich said, after affirming “I believe that the Jewish people have the right to have a state.” Gingrich went on to suggest that differentiating between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is not always appropriate, as “both…represent an enormous desire to destroy Israel.” He also specifically criticized PA President Mahmoud Abbas, saying he did not recognize Israel’s right to exist; Abbas has said he won’t recognize Israel as a Jewish State.

Of the Oslo Peace Accords, which Gingrich helped shape in Congress in 1994 to require America to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, among other things, the candidate declared “I think it’s delusional to call it a peace process.” Responding to the approach of “evenhandedness” advocated by President Barack Obama, Gingrich retorted, “Right, but if I’m evenhanded between a civilian democracy that obeys the rule of law and a group of terrorists that are firing missiles everyday, that’s not even handed, that’s favoring the terrorists.”

Gingrich was also highly critical of the Obama administration’s diplomacy in the Middle East amid recent turmoil, declaring “I think we are much more likely to see an Arab winter than an Arab spring.” The former congressman also decried the number of Islamist seats won in the recent Egyptian elections as indicative of deeper problems in the region.

As to whom he agrees with, Gingrich said “I see myself as in many ways being pretty close to Bibi Netanyahu in thinking about the dangers of the world,” adding “Bibi’s a really tough guy, and he’s a guy who puts Israel’s security first; he also happens to be a free-market guy and someone who has made the entrepreneurial boom so successful.”

Addressing the topic of jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, Gingrich announced he has assembled a “working group” that is currently “studying” the issue, and that “I have a bias in favor of clemency” in part because “he has served a very long time.” He said that if elected president, “I would appoint a very small panel that would be very willing to look at the facts.” He noted, however, that past presidents had reversed an earlier willingness to release Pollard and that “there’s something there that I don’t know as a non-president, and I’d want to be thoroughly briefed” before making a decision. “If we can get to a point where I’m satisfied that there’s no national security threat, and if he’s in fact servied within the range of people who’ve had a similar problem, then I’d be inclined to consider clemency.”

The full interview with Gingrich can be viewed on The Jewish Channel, which is available on Comcast, iO Optimum, Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Cox Cable, RCN, Bright House Networks, and Frontier.

Comments

Invented people? I suspect Newt advocates for ethnic cleansing? His logical next step would be to call for the elimination of those pesky brown dirty people. Pretty disgusting really. I hope that the viewers of the Jewish Channel push back against this unproductive dialogue. What would it take for the viewers of the Jewish Channel to think an American politician has gone too far in their blatant pandering? If Newt called for the forced exportation of all Palestinians, would that precipitate outrage? If Newt called for concentration camps with coordinated extermination of all of all Palestinians, would that be ok? It is an awful slippery slope. Now, he is trying to deny that they are a real people, and later they will be sub-human, and after that it is all downhill. I believe in the humanity, wisdom, and power of the Jewish community and religion, and believe now is the time to tell Gingrich, hold on a second, the Palestinians are a people, they deserve human rights too, and they deserve a place to live in peace and harmony.

Polar wasn’t even israelly.
He was C.I.A. and then free lancer for the mosad…plus, he was discover.
Same on him.

…i mean shame

[...] Jewish Channel, a cable TV station, posted online its interview with the former US House speaker, who has risen to the top of Republican nomination candidates to challenge Democratic President [...]

[...] Jewish Channel, a cable TV station, posted online its interview with the former US House speaker, who has risen to the top of Republican nomination candidates to challenge Democratic President [...]

[...] an “invented” people who want to destroy Israel.The Jewish Channel, a cable TV station, posted online its interview with the former US House speaker, who has risen to the top of Republican nomination candidates to challenge Democratic President [...]

[...] told The Jewish Channel: We’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the [...]

These are the types of responses that Peggy Noonan was referring to in her recent piece on Gingrich. These responses of Newt’s are a shameless effort to engender Jewish and Israeli sympathy and support for his candidacy while unnecessarily fanning the flames with Arabs (Palestinians) and Egyptians. In particular the voting that is happening in Egypt is positive and what the Egyptian people want, and is not appropriate for Gingrich to characterize negatively. This shameless and unnecessary campaign rhetoric of Gingrich’s is decidedly unhelpful toward any piece processes in the Middle East. The World would become a much more dangerous place with Newt Gingrich’s dangerous and divisive rhetoric representing the U.S.

Mr . Gingrich , in all his glory ( stupidity ), is clearly both blind and deaf to simple historical facts . True , there was no Palestine , pr . say , but neither was there any Israel , so where does that leave us ? I truly believe that the palestine people have a right to their own state . Israel is acting like the ” masterfolk ” did during Worldwar 2 – they need ” lebensraum ” ! There will never be a lasting peace in the Middle East , so lang as the Israeli government continues its occupying policy !!

Palestine will get justice. The whole world supports justice for Palestine.

If the Palestinians were ‘invented’ how do you explain the fact that Palestine was full of Palestinians? That is until they were ethnically cleansed by Europeans in the 1940s. The population of Palestine was driven from their homes and lands and often massacred. It is still happening today and all paid for by US taxes.

[...] told The Jewish Channel that Palestinians are not a genuine [...]

[...] was no Palestine as a state, [it was] part of the Ottoman empire,” he said in a video excerpt posted online. “I think we have an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and historically part [...]

Finally some truth. The only real palestinians are jewish, like myself, both parents beiong holders of Jewish Palestinaisn IDs issued by HRM King George, prior to whom no territory of palestine was ever a political unit. The Arabs are basically just that Arabs, hailing from wherever, just as they are Arabs in Hamburg, Stockholm of Bruxelles. They have no national claim to the Land of Israel, or Mandatory Palestine which raised 30,000 troops for the allied war effort, all jewish. So the Peace process with the Arab invaders is a sham, because the invaders are not interested in peace. They are, and always were, for the destruction of the Palestinian jewish national Home, and its legal inheritor, the State of israel. Jewish Israel, having won its freedom from British rule and Arab invasion is the only legitimate sovereignty west of the jordan River, and should Arabs wish to participate in an Arab polity, they have 22 states to choose from.

[...] was no Palestine as a state, [it was] part of the Ottoman empire,” he said in a video excerpt posted online. “I think we have an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and historically part [...]

[...] Jewish Channel, a cable TV station, posted online its interview with the former US House speaker, who has risen to the top of Republican nomination candidates to challenge Democratic President [...]

[...] told The Jewish Channel: We’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the [...]

[...] and Romney to Gingrich and Perry – “You shouldn’t stir up trouble.” Newt opined in an interview on Friday that the Palestinians were an “invented people”. When the panel were asked what they thought [...]

Finally a U.S. politician that tells it like it is and is not afaraid of offending the arabs

[...] Jewish Channel, a cable TV station, posted online its interview with the former US House speaker, who has risen to the top of Republican nomination candidates to challenge Democratic President [...]

[...] told The Jewish Channel: We’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the [...]

[...] as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire,” Gingrich told the Jewish Channel, which posted portions of the interview online on Friday [cached]. “And I think that we’ve have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact [...]

[...] Here is what the self-styled Wunderkind had to say during an interview with Steven I. Weiss on the Jewish Channel: [...]

[...] Newt Gingrich caused a stir last week when he declared, on the Jewish Channel cable TV station, that the Palestinians are an invented people. You can watch the various segments of his interview on that link. He was absolutely correct in [...]

[...] “pro-Israel”, with Newt Gingrich taking the game to a whole new level last week when he said in an interview with The Jewish Channel that Palestinians were an “invented” people. When asked whether he considered himself a [...]

[...] Friday, December 9, presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was interviewed on cable TV’s The Jewish Channel, where he made the unexpected comment that the Palestinians are an invented people with no apparent [...]

[...] with Newt Gingrich taking the game to a whole new level last week when he said in an interview with The Jewish Channel that Palestinians were an “invented” people. When asked whether he considered himself a [...]

[...] was no Palestine as a state, [it was] part of the Ottoman empire,” he said in a video excerpt posted online. “I think we have an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and historically part [...]

Newt Gingrich is brilliant! He has the knowledge of history and the courage to speak the truth and say things that nobody else seems to be willing to say! America need statesmen like Newt who are not intimidated by the culture of political correctness!